Estimating

Planning is a very critical part of any successful project delivery. One major concern with earlier software methodologies was the upfront planning and the team commitment even before starting the project. There are so many uncertainties possible which could not have been included upfront and the initial estimates could not precisely accommodate all of those. The initial estimates are in a way enforced on the team in the form of commitment even before starting the project.

Agile approach to the process of estimating and planning tries to target the same issue. Keeping Agile values in mind, the team and product owner work together in estimating and planning to deliver the maximum value. Both team and business work together in inspect and adapt mode.

One main point to understand here is that an Agile team measures the estimate in size rather than the duration. Agile Estimating is about measuring the chunk of work or functionality in relative terms.

The estimation size for different...